Wilder Christmas Letter 2009

Dear Family Friends and Loved Ones,
As 2009 comes to a close we reflect on the joys and trials it brought in it’s way. After much prayer we felt that purchasing a home was a good route for us to take in our lives. After looking at more houses then we care to admit, Sarah was getting a little frustrated and so was John. The houses were either WAY to small for our family of 6 or needed more work on them then John and Sarah felt they could accomplish on their own or within their means. A friend of ours told us of a coworker who was trying to sale his home before he lost it. We gave the address of the home to our real estate agent and were very excited to find out that the house was 5 bedrooms and 3 baths. We walked though a few times and then decided to place an offer. We placed the offer in March, and after much waiting, paperwork, more waiting, minor repairs to get the home to pass inspection, and even more waiting, on August 17th (our 9th wedding anniversary) we signed the final papers and closed escrow on our home. YEAH!!!!!!
John is in his 5th year at Granite Hills High School. He is teaching 11th and 12th graders again this year, and seems to have a good group of kids. He is currently serving in the Elder’s Quorum Presidency at church which keeps him busy.
Sarah is in her 8th year of being a full time mommy and all though there are hard days, she can say it is the most rewarding job she has ever had. She is currently serving in the Young Women’s Presidency so her Sunday’s and Wednesday evenings are full and busy. Not to mention the occasional Saturday Night Stake Dances.
Vincent (8) is in the 3rd Grade at Summit Academy, and as always doing well academically, and would do even better if he would put the book (known as his distraction) down and listen to the teachers full instructions on how to do something. He has taken a liking to the Medieval Time Period now and that has become his latest love of reading and studying. Vincent was baptized in October with lots of family in attendance.
Addison (6) is in the 1st Grade at Summit Academy and is the class social go to. He received almost all exceeding standards marks on his report card to which we were very proud of him. In the teachers remark area his teacher said Addison was a very friendly and big hearted child who gets along with everyone which sometimes makes class time hard when he would rather socialize then do his class work.
Nicholas (4) is in the Pre-K program at Sunny Acres Preschool. He is not the social butterfly but we are proud to announce that after 4 months he is no longer screaming and crying and running after Sarah when she drops him off. Nicholas is a very loving child, however, is our most shy and loves to just be home playing with his toys and his siblings.
Eliza (2) is at home with mom wishing she could be at school. For four months Sarah left the preschool with Nicholas crying to come back home and Eliza crying because she wanted to stay. Eliza is a sassy full of energy child and a complete joy. She is quick witted and has made us laugh several times with her comebacks.
We hope this letter comes to you in good health and happy hearts. We send our deepest love to each one of you and our prayer of a safe and sound 2010. You can see what is happening in the daily/weekly lives of the wilders at www.john-sarahwilderfam.blogspot.com
LOVE, John, Sarah, Vincent, Addison, Nicholas & Eliza Wilder

Cinderella Lindsey

This post actually goes with the post two down, but decided to make it its own post. One of my piano students tried out for Miss Porterville and won! We were so excited for her. As we got to the parade she was standing by her float waiting for the parade to start so we said our "hello's" and "congratulations". As everyone knows my Addison is a Ladies Man, and since Lindsey has also babysat him too, she is just yet another teenager that he has his eyes on. He wanted to get his picture taken with her, and I was so happy at how it turned out. After we walked away Eliza said, "Lindsey looks like Cinderella" and she sure did!

Painting

To end our Veteran's Day Family Day we came home to paint the newly installed back door at our house. Vincent didn't want to paint. Addison helped paint one side of the door, but the laundry room is not big enough for a lot of people painting a single door, so he stopped and Nicholas and Eliza helped John finish off. Eliza is available to anyone that wants to use her for a door painting job. She not only painted the door, but got some on the screen door, and the wall too. *SIGH* Not to mention she just HAD to keep touching the door to tell us, "Nope, it's not dry yet."

Veteran's Day Parade

For our Veteran's Day we had a family day. We started the day out at the local parade downtown. Then headed to a pizzo parlor for lunch and a party. Then we went and checked out a local grocery store that just had its grand opening. My boys were thrilled at their sea food dept. as they had octopus' and shrimp heads.

Smokey & Sparkle

Here are some pictures of our new additions

Update without the Pictures

A lot has happened in the Wilder family these last two weeks and I have tons of pictures to show for it, however the USB port got broke on my computer so I cannot download pictures from my camera to the computer. :-( I will have to go get a disk made at the photo store and then download them that way.
Our latest joy is we added two members to our family. Smokey and Sparkle our two puppies. Uncle Boyd and Aunt Rhonda told the kids that they would get them a dog after we bought a house. These two puppies were being offered by a ward member to a family who would take them both. We decided to go for it and so we have Dachshund puppies. They are very hyper and run through the house and it is like adding 2 extra two year olds in the house. We are enjoying it!
As for this bloggy, yes that is Christmas Music already. I cannot wait until after Thanksgiving. I love Christmas Music and also have a new calling which put me charge of the Christmas Program for Sacrament the Sunday before Christmas. Sooooo, I have been working on a lot of Christmas things. John had fun picking a few two. Check back often we are adding new ones daily! :-)!

Carving Pumpkins

We spent halloween weekend at my parents house and had fun carving our pumpkins and roasting pumpkin seeds as one of our activities there. Never did get a picture of the final results :-(.